Stoke Pull Out Late Winner at Ashford Town Friendly Sat 10th August 2019

In possibly Stoke’s last pre-season friendly before next week’s opening league fixture against Barnstaple Town, we travelled to take on Ashford Town.

Stoke took an early lead via Jordan Edwards finish, but this was soon cancelled out when a mistake by the keeper allowed the home side to equalise.

A second goal, a neatly taken finish by Edwards put us back in front, but yet again an equaliser from Ashford levelled the score 2-2 at halftime.

Chatting to Terry Brown during the break, it’s clear we still have concerns at the back, and need to find 1 if not 2 centre-backs for the season ahead.

Stoke made some changes early in the second-half, which seemed to unsettle us and it was the home side who took a 3-2 lead. As the game wore on Stoke found an unlikely hero in big defender Naz when he stuck the ball home from a yard after the keeper failed to hold onto the ball.

Then in the dying minutes, up stepped forward Ben Wright to slot the ball past the keeper who really should have done better and Stoke held onto win 3-4 on a very windy in North-West London.